Smith: Wisconsin youth trapshooters take national titles in Scholastic Clay Target Program

Alex Schlobohm of Sun Prairie and Courtney Wolfert of Waterford recorded perfect scores in trapshooting to win their respective divisions as well as help Wisconsin take the all-state team title at the 2023 national championships of the Scholastic Clay Target Program.

The two rising juniors were among the many Badger State individuals and teams with top finishes at the championships, held July 4 to 15 at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio.

The event drew 3,131 participants from 34 states, according to Tom Wondrash, SCTP national director and co-president of the SCTP Foundation .

Events included trap, doubles trap, handicap trap, skeet, doubles skeet, sporting clays, international skeet and international (bunker) trap.

Participants typically range from sixth graders through college and compete in divisions based on experience, including rookie, junior varsity, senior varsity and collegiate.

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Most SCTP programs are affiliated with schools, conservation clubs or shooting ranges. Some are run as varsity sports, others as club activities.

The SCTP is part of the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, which provides programs for students from elementary school through college that emphasize safe firearm handling, discipline and teamwork.

The 2023 SCTP national championships featured 9,247 registrations across the various events and about 2 million clay targets were attempted, Wondrash said.

The most popular events were mens and ladies singles trap, which included 2,807 registrations.

Schlobohm, 16, attends Sun Prairie West High School and competes in trapshooting for the North Bristol Sportsman's Club. He won the 2023 SCTP gold medal in men's senior varsity trapshooting, arguably the marquee event at the national championships.

To win the title, Schlobohm had to top a field of 949 competitors in his division, the largest of any event at the championships.

And to do so required perfection.

The singles trap competition requires 100 targets to be shot on successive days. The winner is the person who hits the most.

Six competitors recorded perfect 200s in the regular rounds. In addition to Schlobohm, they were trapshooters from Iowa, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Schlobohm had shot 100 straight in two events earlier in 2023 but never a perfect 200.

"I had some doubts after the first day, because I'd never done it twice in a row," Schlobohm said. "But then on the second day I got in the zone again and I felt like I could do it."

A shoot-off was held to determine the champion. First the six were presented 25 targets at the standard distance, 16 yards. One competitor missed; five hit all 25 and advanced.

Then the trapshooters were moved back to 22 yards. Two more missed, and three (Logan Sease of Ankeny, Iowa, Hayden Demastus of Lula, Georgia, and Schlobohm) moved on.

The trio moved farther back for the next shoot-out round, to 27 yards. Only Schlobohm hit all 25.

Schlobohm was introduced to trapshooting five years ago by his paternal grandfather, Len, and father, Eric, both also of Sun Prairie. This was his first trip to nationals.

"It's a feeling of accomplishment, for sure," Schlobohm said. "I was more interested in giving mom (Danika) a hug and calling everybody back home to let them know."

Wolfert, 17, of Waterford also couldn't afford a miss on her way to the national title in ladies senior varsity singles trap.

Her 200 edged out Ashley Schwiner of New Berlin and New Berlin Trap Club and Marin McKinney of Olivet, Michigan, each of whom tallied 199.

It was also Wolfert's first 200 on the trap field. She competes for the Waterford Wolverine Shooting Team; this was her fifth trip to SCTP nationals.

Her previous high was 196.

"I was pretty excited (after the first day) and it definitely did make me a little nervous," Wolfert said. "But I calmed down and I knew I could do it again."

She certainly did do it again, the only competitor in a field of 262 to hit all 200.

It's only the third time in SCTP nationals history that a female scored a perfect 200 in trapshooting, Wondrash said.

Though she has two years left in high school, her score would have also won the ladies collegiate title.

Wolfert got into trapshooting in sixth grade after she saw her older sister Angie try it. She credits her coaches at the club for her advancement in the sport.

"When I first tried it, I remember thinking it was something I wanted to do for a very long time," said Wolfert, who tries to shoot four or five times a week at Burlington Conservation Club during the trapshooting season.

She plans to compete in trapshooting in college.

Schlobohm and Wolfert headlined the Wisconsin results. But there were many more individual and team titles and top five finishes by Badger State participants, part of what has become an annual display of Wisconsin's elite youth trapshooting scene.

"It's truly impressive how year-after-year Wisconsin athletes and teams continue to earn medals," Wondrash said.

The Wisconsin high school team of Schlobohm, Wolfert, Trenton Giese of Muskego Warriors Trap Club, Sawyer Jones of the Burlington High School Demons Shooting Team and Zachary Vogt of Waterford Wolverines won the overall national team title with a score of 989.

The Muskego Warriors Trap Club also took home a national title, this one in open team trap. The squad of Logan Geboy (196 of 200), Alexander Tischaefer (195), Sydnee Young (194), Zach Buxengard (192) and Elliot Iczkowski (192) broke 969 targets, topping the second and third place teams Ankeny Centennial Jaguars (965) and Pleasant Valley High School Trap Team (964), both from Iowa.

The Burlington team added two more team gold medals: The senior/junior varsity team broke 967 of 1,000 targets and the younger teammates in the rookie division hit 874.

Among other individual titles, Hunter Drissel of Burlington and BHS hit 199 of 200 targets to take the top spot in senior/junior varsity skeet.

In rookie trap, Jamison Ketterhagen of Burlington and the BHS team hit 190 to win the mens title and Addison Keisler of Genoa City and the Wilmot Panthers Shotgun Team broke 186 to take the ladies top spot.

Brianna Kober of Plymouth and the Plymouth Trap Team scored 197 to take first among female college trapshooters.

Wisconsin has emerged as a hotbed for trapshooting, with youth participants drawing college scholarships and competing at the highest levels.

In 2021 Madelynn Burnau of Waterford won a bronze medal in mixed trapshooting at the Tokyo Olympics. Burnau competed in the SCTP programs as she grew up in southeastern Wisconsin.

Traphshooting is growing in participation among youth across the country. The SCTP had about 20,000 competitors in 44 states during the 2022-23 regular season, Wondrash said.

In addition to SCTP, the High School Clay Target League claimed it had 43,009 participants on 1,466 teams in 34 states as of 2022.

Many colleges offer trapshooting teams and scholarships, so participants in SCTP and other leagues can target careers beyond their youth.

"The growth has been constant, just constant," Wondrash said. "I don't see a time when it will stop."

For complete results from the SCTP 2023 national championships, visit sssfonline.org. To learn more about youth trapshooting opportunities, visit mysctp.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Two Wisconsin youth trapshooters perfect in taking national titles